How today’s fiscal austerity is reminiscent of World War I’s economic misunderstandings When World War I broke out in August 1914, economists on both sides forecast that hostilities could not last more than about six months. Wars had grown so expensive that governments quickly would run out of money. It seemed that if Germany could not defeat France by springtime, the Allied and Central Powers would run out of savings and reach what today is called a fiscal cliff and be forced to negotiate a peace agreement. But the Great War dragged on for four destructive years. European governments did what the United States had done after the Civil War broke out in 1861 when the Treasury printed greenbacks. They paid for more fighting simply by printing their own money. Their ...
Finance Capitalism and its Discontents
NEW BOOK: This collection contains the most important interviews and speeches that Professor Michael Hudson, Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri (Kansas City), and president of the Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends (ISLET) has given over the past decade (2003-2012). They span the political spectrum from COUNTERPUNCH.COM and KPFK radio's GUNS AND BUTTER to iTULIP.COM and SANKT GEORGE in Berlin. It also includes his now-famous Rlmini, Italy, speeches that were given at a packed sports arena in early 2012 on the topic of how finance capitalism is pushing the world, starting with Europe, into austerity and neo-feudalism. Available in paperback or kindle from Amazon.com for $19.95
Reality economics
A review of Norbert Häring and Niall Douglas, Economists and the Powerful (London: Anthem Press, 2012). “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” And if they would destroy economies, they first create a wealthy class on top, and let human nature do the rest. The acquisition of power soon leads to its abuse, to economic and social hubris. By seeking to protect its gains, perpetuate itself and make its wealth hereditary, power elites lock in their position in ways that exclude and injure those below. Turning government into an oligarchy, the wealthy indebt and shift the tax burden onto the less powerful. It is an ancient tale. The Greeks got matters right in seeing how power leads to hubris, bringing about its own downfall. Hubris ...
Austerity, Debt and Unelected Central Bankers
Loans you shouldn't pay back, violent partners, and who triumphs when Germany Banks & Greece go toe to toe. Seek truth from facts with former Chase banker Prof. Michael Hudson, Stockholm Syndrome theorist Dr. Carlos Encinas, anti-EU party boss Peter Mach, Greek Correspondent Nicolas Mottas and Financial Times Associate Editor Wolfgang Munchau.
E Peshine Smith: A Study in Protectionist Growth Theory and American Sectionalism
NY University, PhD, 1968, Michael Hudson Peshine Smith (1814 - 82) was probably the most sophisticated of the pre-Civil War protectionists. What he attempted was no less a task than to transform protectionist economic thought from a body of disparate and often self-contradictory parts into an integrated doctrine of economic growth, and to develop political economy as a quantitative engineering science. Read the rest of my dissertation (PDF 11mb)
Fiscal Cliff Trojan
More at The Real News November 25, 2012 Fiscal Cliff An Artificial Crisis Michael Hudson: Fiscal cliff was manufactured to shift more of the burden of the crisis onto ordinary people. Transcript PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore. ... Now we are going to begin. And we are told that we're about to go over the cliff, a fiscal cliff, and we need to have massive reform to entitlement programs, Social Security, and others. Now joining us to discuss the crisis (we are told) is Michael Hudson. Michael was a Wall Street financial analyst and is now a distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. His new book is The Bubble and Beyond. Thanks for joining us, Michael. MICHAEL HUDSON, RESEARCH PROF., ...
How Neoliberal Tax and Financial Policy Impoverishes Russia – Needlessly
* A shorter version of this paper has been published in the Russian Academy of Sciences journal, Mir Peremen (The World of Transformations), 2012 (3):49-64 (in Russian). An earlier version was posted by the Global Policy Forum meeting in Yaroslavl, Russia, September 7-8, 2011, on its website. Russian poverty is unnecessary. Like all poverty in today’s high-productivity age, it is the result of bad policy. There is no technological need for it, nor is Russia lacking in a full spectrum of natural resources and economic potential. So future historians no doubt will puzzle over how the nation was convinced to de-industrialize its economy and impoverish much of its population in favor of exporting fuels and minerals, and to impose more regressive taxes on labor and industry than existed anywhere ...
Obama Wins for whom?
As published in Counterpunch The Democrats could not have won so handily without the Citizens United ruling. That is what enabled the Koch Brothers to spend their billions to support right-wing candidates that barked and growled like sheep dogs to give voters little civilized option but to vote for “the lesser evil.” This will be President Obama’s epitaph for future historians. Orchestrating the election like a World Wrestling Federation melodrama, the Tea Party’s sponsors threw billions of dollars into the campaign to cast the President’s party in the role of “good cop” against stereotyped opponents attacking women’s rights, Hispanics and nearly every other hyphenated-American interest group. In Connecticut, Senate candidate Linda McMahon spent a reported $97 million (including her earlier ego ...
MH in the Classroom
Michael Hudson's talk at the joint seminar on "Modern Monetary Theory" and "Monetary Circuit Theory" held at the Fields Institute on Tuesday July 3rd. Outlining his model at Canada’s Fields Institute, the world’s leading mathematical institute. At the meeting with Steve Keen, Stephanie Kelton,Nathan Tankus et al.
The Social Economics of Thorstein Veblen
Book Review as published at the Economic History Association David Reisman, The Social Economics of Thorstein Veblen, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2012, vii + 338 pp. $150 (hardcover), ISBN978-0-85793-218-1. Those who wish to understand the many and deep contributions of Thorstein Veblen to economics will find that this offering falls short of the mark. The title promises to treat the social policy content of Veblen’s economic thought. Describing the ways in which markets were being distorted by predatory finance and other special interests, Veblen was read by every socialist leader and most progressives in early and mid-20th century America. Written in a popular sarcastic style, his books showed how the behavior of wealth and high finance was having perverse effects after World ...
